Almost 60 million Americans under flood watches as storms batter East Coast

More than a dozen states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, are under flood warnings with heavy rain and strong winds moving in

Around 58 million Americans are currently under flood watches as an intense storm system that inundated the South makes its way up the East Coast.

More than a dozen states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, were under flood warnings on Monday morning, with heavy rain and strong winds moving in.

Around one foot of rain is expected to inundate New York on Monday, while the National Weather Service has warned that strong gusts of wind may make travel particularly difficult in parts of southern Connecticut, southeastern New York and Boston.

The strong gusts could down trees and power lines and cause damage or blow away outdoor holiday decorations in parts of the region, officials have warned.

The severe weather threatens to impact the holiday season as many Americans embark on their travels for Christmas this week.

High winds are already causing delays of up to three hours for flights leaving John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Traffic along the I-95 corridor has already been affected, with risks of delays from wind and rain throughout the weekend and into Monday.

It comes after the storm began trekking up the coast on Saturday, sweeping through much of Florida, before moving along the Southeastern coast on Sunday.

A car drives through a flooded street near the Battery on Sunday (AP)

South Carolina was hit hard with flooding rains on Saturday, while nearly a foot of rain was recorded in Georgetown County, a coastal region between Charleston and Myrtle Beach, according to the weather service.

The flooding prompted authorities to make dozens of rescues.

Around 45 million people from eastern Georgia to the Northeast were also under high wind alerts late on Sunday, with North Carolina under a tornado watch with wind gusts forecast to reach speeds of up to 65mph.

The storm left hundreds of thousands of people without power on Saturday and Sunday, with almost 200,000 people still without electricity in states including Virginia, New Jersey and New York as of Monday morning, according to the tracker PowerOutage.us.

The storm system will start to push away from the Northeast later on Monday evening, but its effects will likely linger, the weather service said.

“Even though the big storm will begin to depart the Northeast Monday evening, the huge circulation of the storm will overspread the entire eastern US with very blustery conditions,” the NWS said.